As an alumnus and former employee of both Duke Student Affairs and the prior insurance vendor, I was discouraged to hear of the difficulties that Duke students have suffered due to the recent change to UnitedHealth. It is evident from the dozens of comments that have been posted on the GPSC Web site-gpsc.duke.edu in the forum titled "Let's get rid of United Health care"-that many graduate and professional students are dissatisfied with the benefits, network of providers and, most distressingly, poor customer service.
On April 4, 2008, only four days prior to Duke's announcement to switch to UnitedHealth, the Wall Street Journal published a lengthy article entitled "UnitedHealth Service Problems Hurt Image, Prompting Changes." This article stated that the company had "become a lightning rod for sometimes scathing complaints from patients" that resulted in declining customer satisfaction ratings and shrinking enrollment.
In light of the Wall Street Journal article, it is not surprising that Duke students are dissatisfied with the current carrier. What is surprising is that Duke's decision makers either did not anticipate this poor service, or worse, were not obliged to explain this likely outcome to the thousands of students that rely on the "University-sponsored" health plan.
I hope that these issues are being addressed and that the Duke students' best interests are driving the decisions that are being made.
Jeff Powell
Trinity '00
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